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Unique Array Of Wave Buoys For Primare

The Peninsula Research Institute for Marine Renewable Energy (PRIMaRE) has ordered 8 Fugro OCEANOR SEAWATCH MINI II buoys to form the core of an instrumentation network at the Wave Hub site off the South West of England.

16 May 2008

Wave Hub is a groundbreaking renewable energy project that aims to create the UK's first offshore facility for the demonstration and proving of arrays of wave energy generation devices (WECs). The Wave Hub facility will provide a well defined and monitored site with electrical connection to the onshore national grid. Four different proven commercial WEC manufacturers will each have a berth to connect a number of their devices to the Wave Hub's sea bed 'socket' which is approximately 16 km offshore and at a depth of 50m.

PRIMaRE, which is directly linked to the Wave Hub project, is tasked to monitor and characterize the wave climate at the site. The 8 directional wave sensor buoys will facilitate this with detailed coverage of the 2km by 4km deployment area.
More significantly, as a part of an extensive but highly integrated system of oceanographic, meteorological and environmental monitoring equipment at the Wave Hub site, the buoy array will constitute a world leading facility giving researchers in wave energy a unique opportunity to work with much richer and detailed data sets.

The buoy array will also be an important part of the Wave Hub's infrastructure, feeding wave information to the WEC devices. In one mode of operation the buoys will be able to deliver synchronized live and continuous data streams that will allow a local description of the sea surface to be computed in near real time. This data can be provided as a live feed to the WEC devices to help optimize their energy output.

Notes:
The Peninsula Research Institute for Marine Renewable Energy (PRIMaRE) has been formed by the Marine Institute of the University of Plymouth in partnership with the University of Exeter. An initial fund of over £7.3 million from Southwest Regional Development Agency (SWRDA) has allowed PRIMaRE to bring together a unique team of world-class researchers to provide unparalleled expertise and research capacity to address the wider considerations of all aspects of Marine Renewable Energy. (http://www.primare.org/ )

Fugro OCEANOR
Fugro OCEANOR is a high technology company specialising in the design, manufacture, technological development, installation and support of integrated real-time environmental monitoring, forecasting and information systems for oceans, coastal areas, rivers, lakes, groundwater and soil. The Company has over 20 years of international experience and a staff with multi-disciplinary backgrounds including those within real-time systems, meteorology, marine technology, oceanography, hydrology, water engineering, waves, and software development. (www.oceanor.com )